


Love, Change

by Izzu



Series: 추노/Chuno [4]
Category: Chuno | The Slave Hunters, Korean Drama
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-03
Updated: 2012-11-16
Packaged: 2017-11-17 16:12:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/553446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Izzu/pseuds/Izzu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When their path first touched, he didn't realize how much the woman named Kim Hyewon would have turned his life... his beliefs, around.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Love, Change

**Author's Note:**

> Because I suck at romance haha. Yet I wanted to write more Chuno. Chet.

“ _I owe you a debt of gratitude...”_

It wasn't planned, love was never his intention. Before love, his duty comes first. As that duty was reason he allowed himself to live; despite the indignity and insult. Against the many odds his arduous journey would force him to face, love would definitely hinder.

Yet his heart soared for her.

“ _Are you a slave on the run...?”_

Slave.

One couldn't imagine how that one word manage to pierce the core of his heart and hurt him like no other. As if that one brand manage to erase the many things about him that made him who he was. Of the nobility he was, Hanyang's Song Taeha. Of the great officer he had been, the leader his men looked up to. As if all of that never existed.

It wound him. Of all the enemy legions he had faced, none hurt him as much as this. Because the one that hurt him—and his men—were none other than his own people. The ones that supposed to be his allies. Who, instead of supporting them... stabbed them on their back. How could the world he went away from; ended up changing into an unrecognisable form upon his return?

Reduced to a slave, what other defeat much worse than this? If not for her, he would not have been able to push aside the thought that he'd become one.

“ _There's nothing more harrowing than slavery...”_

Perhaps it was so, perhaps it was as said.... but he could never admitted that fact. For it hit far too close to home. And it was not just him.

When all of them have gathered by the stone Maitreya, he was hit by sadness and pain. As if twisted by thorns that refused to go away. Seeing the Mark on each of his men's foreheads save for Hanseom; a mark that was similar as his own, seared onto the most visible of places... his heart bled.

These were his men and he their commanding officer, Yet he could not protect them...

“ _Thank you, for staying by my side...”_

He meant it... so very much. No words could ever be able to describe his feelings.

It's not like he never had that kind of strength... before. But one could only fight alone long enough. To be able to protect someone; to have someone by your side to support you... wasn't that the most precious treasure of all? He wouldn't have been able to go through without her. Normally he would; but he was not burdened with sorrows such as this.

This new world of which he ventured into again; how it scared him no one could tell. Returning after being stripped of all, wouldn't anyone feel daunted by it? An old uniform worn, yet all that used to be won't return. His Master gone; no old friend by his side. To carry onto the wishes of that dear friend, have he the strength to go through with it? If not for her presence and his men, would any courage still remained?

And then that man appeared before him... and  _his truth_ threaten his beliefs. 

xxx

“ _We keep avoiding the matter in denial. Is that not the case?”_

Then what else could he do? His heart said one thing... his upbringing said another. He was used to the things he had been brought up in; of discipline and of propriety... would going against all that made everything he knew become void?

He thought that by denying that _it_ ever happened, he would be fine. He had been determined to ignore knowledge of the unsavoury matters; must he be forced to accept it before he could move on?

“ _My name... was Eonnyeon...”_

“ _That woman named Eonnyeon... has passed away already. And she was reborn under the name of Kim Hyewon...”_

She has affected him so much. She had taught him much. Did it matter now that her true past was revealed to him? She was leaving... she's about to leave him, far from his reach. Must he lose her just because of petty reasons as class discrimination? Of the tenets that now revealed to be unfair? When he also had a taste of how bad it had been...

Taeha thought of the things happening in the past, when it had been clear that Hyewon had been trying to tell him something. He thought of the many other words that has been exchanged; of that utterance he had spoken before those other 'slaves' he had been forced to live with back when he first was stripped of his lineage. Of the many discussions he had with her, of the things he said he'd change to become better.

He recalled the words his Superiors had passed to him, of the kind of orders that should not be accepted; even if it's a royal decree. That  _mandate_ , could that also apply to things like this? Because he tasted it himself; how others had treated him poorly when he was reduced to a worthless slave. After everything he had done to fight for his country, yet all that was forgotten in a blink of an eye. Have he forgotten how unjust  _that_ had been?

Should he remained like that yet yearned for a  _better tomorrow?_

“ _Unless I first change, the world will never do.”_

How could he talk of change and upholding the promise he had with the late Crown Prince; to _her_ , when he himself refused...

Thus Song Taeha ran; towards the woman that opened his eyes, his heart. Because that was the right thing to do.


	2. Stigma; Promises

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> His whole life, he was taught about the order of how things should be and should remain. It never crossed his might that it was wrong or he would break it someday. But compared to petty ranks, love and upholding his promised were more important.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit more expansion of this scene. Contemplated on posting this as separate... ah well, screw it.

A slave.

A brand that he loathed being placed on him. A fate he bitterly accepted for his and his retinue's sake. Since purpose far greater than a noble death existed, that demanded their survival. Since if they perished, a child or two would lose its protector. And two children had perished, leaving one remaining.

It's a brand he's desperate to forget. For all the insults, ill-treatments and name-callings he recieved. To endure everything and watching a former compeer basking in the light that was once his.

It wasn't easy for him, as he believed the same goes for his fellow compeers; wherever they were. It was hard to fake his own injuries to appear that it no longer healed but worsen, while trying to recover his strength. It's hard for him to endure being treated as a dim-witted fool; an act the late crown prince would have been amazed to see he accomplished. Being a prideful man he is.

It's hard for him to endure being treated as nothing by a former compeer, whom he had respected and protected. Even if that gesture weren't conveyed properly and had been interpreted differently.

He didn't realize this before, he was afraid of that brand. So much that he denied its reality as if it was separate. He did not want to think about it!

“...I never envisioned a world without slavery...”

Yet he had to force himself to face it, or lose an important part of his life. And she had accepted him when he thought he was the runaway slave and she the noble...

“I could not _think_ about that...”

As he wept, he recalled Daegil's reproach towards him and he was right. Why would status and rank mattered if you truly loved someone? Why should one sacrificed one's heart for such a petty thing?

_“...we would never betray our fealty to each other...”_

He had promised her his heart. He had promised her his fealty!

“Leaving in this manner is not fealty!”

He can't let either of them betray their promises...


End file.
